Heddle for looms.



No. 644,37l. J l Patented Feb. 27, |900.

S. SEWALL. f

HEDDLE FOR LO0MS.

v Application led July 26, 18917. Renewed Jan. 4, 1900.)

me Noms versus co.. morauwa., wvAsmNaroN, n. c.

UNrrnn STATES PATENT erica SAMUEL SEWVALL, OF TEWKSBURY, MASSACHUSETTS.

HEDDLE FOR Looms.

SPECIFICATION forming part 0f Letters Patent No. 644,371, dated.February 27, 1900.

Application filed July 26, 1897. Renewed January 4, 1900. Serial No.394. (No model.)

T0 all whom it may concerns Be it known that I, SAMUEL SEWALL, ofTewksbury, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Heddles for Looms, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention has relation to heddles, and more particularly to thatclass of metallic heddles of which one type is illustrated in myprevious patent, No. 226,886', dated April 27, 1880. f

The primary object of the invention is to provide a metallic heddlewhich is resilient or yielding in lines parallel to the warp, so as toease the threads and prevent disastrous effects in case there is a iioator one of the warp-threads is knotted, and, moreover, to construct theheddle to allow it to bend or yield at points above and below and not atthe eye, whereby there is no danger of the eye being bent in case theheddle is caused to give or yield to ease the threads.

Another important object of the invention is to fashion the heddle insuch a way that it presents no sharp edges or obstructions to theadjacent threads, and thereby prevents them from being sheared orweakened as the harnesses are shifted to form the shed.

Other objects of the invention are to provide other improvements wherebythe heddles may be arranged side by side more closely for weaving finefabrics and whereby they may be prevented from riding when the harnessesare shifted and to improve the heddles in certain other ways, which willhereinafter be made apparent.

The manner in which I attain the foregoing objects and in what theinvention consists will be fully described and set forth in detail inthe following specification, which is descriptive of one or moreembodiments of the invention selected by me for the purpose ofillustration and not as being the only forms in which the invention maybe expressed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, and to the lettersand figures marked thereon, forming a part of this speciication, thesame letters and gures designating the same parts or features, as thecase may be, wherever they occur.

Of the drawings, Figure 1 represents a face view of a metallic heddleembodying my invention. Fig. 2 represents an edge view of the same. Fig.3 represents an enlarged edge view of the eye. Fig. 4 represents asection on the line 4 4. of Fig. 3. Fig. A5 represents a cross-section,greatly enlarged, through the eye on the line 5 5 of Fig. 1. Fig. 6represents a similar section of a heddle, of which the eye has all theinner edges rounded. Fig. 7 represents a heddle with an offset eye.Figs. 8 and 9 represent the ends of two heddles strung on a cross-barand the way in which they are constructed to prevent riding. Fig. 10illustrates another embodiment of the invention.

In carrying out my invention theheddle ct is formed from a thin sheet ofmetal, preferably steel, and the thread-eye is formed in the centralpart thereof by slitting it longitudinally and then offsetting orbending the two separated portions or sections apart in oppositedirections, as will be hereinafter eX- plained.

Near its upper end the heddle is formed with an eye or slot b byslitting the heddleblank longitudinally and separating the sev'- eredportions, so as to lie in the same plane, this eye being elongated toreceive a crossrod or heddle-bar b', as shown in Figs. 8 and 9, and topermit the heddle to be moved up and down relatively thereto. Thesections h6 h6 are parallel and are bent at their ends to join the mainbody of the heddle. The lower end of the heddle is provided with asimilar eye c, formed in substantially the same way, to receive anotherlower heddle -bar, these said rods formingportions of the harnessframe.Projecting beyond each eye is an eX- tension CZ, which is of such lengththat when a shed has been formed it projects beyond the end of the eyeor slot of the adjacent heddle, whereby its end cannot enter the saideye or become engaged therein. Referring to Figs. 8 and 9, it will beseen that the extension d on the heddle 2 projects beyond the end of theeye b in the heddle 3, so that the extreme end d thereof cannot by anypossibility slip into the slot and become bent when the next shed isformed. Heretofore it has been the practice to form these metal heddlesof the same width, so that when the heddle was arranged with its facesparallel to the work it IOS could not yield longitudinally of thewarpthreads, but was only free to yield and vibrate transverselythereof. It is, however, very desirable that the heddles should becapable of yielding in the direction of the warpthreads to prevent thebreakage of the latter, and with this end in view I shear away a portionof each heddle both above and below the eye f for the warp-thread, so asto forni a portion e greatly reduced in width. By suitable dies thisportion is compressed edgewise, so that looking at the edge thereof inFig. 2 the heddle presents the appearance of having the portions e e ofa greater thickness than the remainder thereof. The said compressed orreduced portions e e do not extend entirely to the eye, but areseparated therefrom by wider portions e e', so that the heddle is notcapable of bending at the eye in the lines of the warp, but will yieldat points both above and below it, whereby there is no danger of the eyebeing bent. In some cases I prefer to have the wider portions e2 e2above and below the reduced portions e e of each heddle bent outwardly,as at es, so that the eye f will-be offset or out of the longitudinallines of the ends of the heddles. In this way the heddles may be hungupon the iiat rods with the offsets extending in opposite directionsalternately, whereby the eye 4of one heddle will not engage the eye ofthe adjacent heddles, and therefore the same number of heddles can bemade to occupy a smaller lateral space than they could if the eyes alllie in the same transverse plane of the warp.

The eye f, to which I have briefiy referred, is formed as follows: Thetwo sections or portions into which each heddle is divided by thelongitudinal slit are bent outwardly to form the elongated eye or slotfor the warpthreads. The inner edge of each portion or section f is bentabruptly inwardly at the ends, as at f2f2, to form shoulders f4, saidshoulders of the two portions overlapping or crossing each other tofurnish a smooth surface for the thread. The outer edge of each portionf is a sinuous curve, as at f3, having the appearance of being beveledoff, whereby there are no shoulders on the outer edges corresponding tothose at f4. (See Fig. 2.)

By forming the eye of the heddle as thus described the edges which comeinto contact .with the adjacent warp-threads are sinuously clrved and donot operate to chate and weaken them as"they,would were they broken orformed with abrupt shoulders.

By means of. suitable dies which operate not only to sever the metal,but also to compress it, the inner edges of the separated sections f fare rounded, as shown at 4 t in Fig. 5, and, if desired, the outer edges`are also rounded, as at 5 5 in FigL 6. This is of the utmostimportance, for if these edges were not rounded to form a smoothbearing-surface and were allowed to remain sharp they would operate tosaw or sever a thread in a very short time and would cause man ybreakages.

By referring more particularly to Figs. 4,

5, and 6 it will be seen that the said sections j" j are concave-convexwith the curve outward, so that each heddle does not present a sharpedge to the adjacent threads, buta comparatively-smooth and unbrokenbearing-surface. Moreover, in order to reduce the lateral spacenecessary for the eyes each portion e e' of the heddle is twisted, as at631 631, so that the planes of the sections are at an angle to the planeof the main body of the heddle, as shown in Fig. 2.

Various changes may be made in the heddle above described withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of my invention. For instance,instead of shearing away and reducing the heddle at points above andbelow the eye to prevent entering the latter at lines longitudinally ofthe warp, the heddle may be given a quarter-twist at four points, as atg g g2 g2, whereby the fiat side of the heddle at h lies in a planetransverse to the plane of the ends of the heddles and the eye portionthereof.

By reason of the sections f f being concavo-convex with the convexityoutward the eye is greatly strengthened, and hence whatever weakness mayhave been caused by slitting the heddle is entirely overcome and guardedagainst.

Having thus explained the nature of the invention and described a way ofconstructing and using the same, though without attempting to set forthall of the forms in which it may be made or all of the modes of its use,it is declared that what is claimed is- 1. A heddle formed of a fiatmetal strip having an eye and end portions substantially unyielding orunbending in the direction of the warp, and having portions intermediateof the eye portion and the end portions, which are resilient or yieldingin the direction of the Warp.

2. A heddle formed of a iiat metallic strip having an eye portion andslotted end portions unyielding or unbending in the direction of thewarp, said end portions extending considerably beyond their slots, saidheddle having portions intermediate of the eye portion and the endportions, which are resilient or yielding in the direction of the warp.

3. A heddle formed of a thin iiat metallic strip arranged with its facesparallel to the warp, and having reduced or cut-away portions to permitthe heddle to yield longitudinally of the warp.

4. A heddle formed of a thin fiat metallic strip arranged with its facesparallel to the warp, and having a thread-eye, said heddle havingportions thereof above and below the eye cut away and compressed topermit the heddle to bend or yield longitudinally of the warp.

5. A heddle formed from a thin metallic IOO IIO

strip slit at a suitable point for the eye and having the sectionsoffset in opposite directions, said sections being curved in transversecross-section for the purpose described.

6. A heddle formed from a thin slitted metal strip, the sections ofwhich are offset in opposite directions and are concave-convex intransverse cross-section.

7. A heddle formed of a flat metallic strip having an eye portion andend portions unbending in the direction of the Warp, and intermediateportions capable of bending in the direction of the Warp, said eyeportion being twisted to have its faces at an angle to the faces of thesaid end portions.

8. A heddle formed of a fiat metallic strip, having a slotted eyeportion and slotted end portions, unbending in the direction of theWarp, and intermediate portions capable of bending in the direction ofthe Warp, the slot in the eye portion being out of the straight lineconnecting` the slot in the end portions.

9. A heddle formed of a flat metallic strip,

slit intermediate of its ends to form a threadeye and having the inneredges only of the slit portions offset to cross each other, and formshoulders for preventing the chafing of the thread in the eye, the outeredge of said slit portions being in sinuous curves to pre vent chaing ofadjacent threads.

lO. A heddle formed of a iiat metallic strip slit intermediate of itsends to provide a thread-eye, said slit portions being transversely andoutwardly curved, whereby the strength of the heddle is increased at itseye portion and the latter is prevented from bending, and being curvedat their edges to prevent chang of adjacent Warp-threads.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses, this 2d day of July,

SAMUEL SEWALL. Witnesses:

, ABD. HARRISON, P. W. PEZZETTI.

